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Islandia II

Submitted by Benefitz Betty on Sat, 2016-12-03 08:30

In the Land of no Show : "Iceland's anti-establishment Pirate Party has been asked by the president to try to form a new government, following October's snap elections. President Gudni Johannesson made the announcement after talks with Pirates head Birgitta Jonsdottir. The Pirates, who vowed radical reforms, came third in the elections in which no party won an outright majority. Two earlier rounds of coalition talks involving first the Independence Party and then the Left-Greens failed.

"Earlier today, I met the leaders of all parties and asked their opinion on who should lead those talks. After that I summoned Birgitta Jonsdottir and handed her the mandate," President Johannesson said on Friday. Ms Jonsdottir said afterwards she was "optimistic that we will find a way to work together".

In the elections, the Pirate Party - which was founded in 2012 - more than tripled its seats to 10 in the 63-member parliament.

The Pirates want more political transparency and accountability, free health care, closing tax loopholes and more protection of citizens' data. Opponents, however, say the Pirate Party's lack of political experience could scare off investors and destabilise Iceland's recovering economy."

"Mr. Glassman states that the Icelandic Parliament has passed legislation ordering the “conversion [of offshore krona] at between 190 and 210 krona to the dollar.” Parliament has done no such thing. The Central Bank of Iceland has announced that it will auction some of its foreign-exchange reserves to repurchase offshore krona for those holders who wish to exit their investments at this stage. Participation in the auction (the 22nd in a series of such auctions, by the way) is wholly voluntary. The bidders will decide what exchange rate they wish to bid and the Central Bank will decide what bids it can afford to accept....

There is one, but only one, similarity between Argentina and Iceland. Following the economic collapse in each country, a few hedge funds acquired distressed local assets for pennies on the dollar. If disappointed in the amount of profit they can turn on those trades, articles by hedge-fund lobbyists are sure to follow.

"The central bank on Thursday offered part of its foreign currency reserves in an auction to exchange $2.4 billion of mostly kronur-denominated Glacier bonds held by Loomis Sayles, Eaton Vance Management and hedge funds including Autonomy Capital. They were asked accept euros at a rate of as much as 50 percent below the official rate. The auction ran from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time.

The offers will now be reviewed “over the days to come,” the central bank said in a statement Thursday. Results will be published no later than June 22."

"Iceland’s president has invited the anti-establishment Pirate party to form a government, after the right- and leftwing parties failed in their bids. Guðni Jóhannesson made the announcement on Friday after meeting with the head of the Pirate’s parliamentary group, Birgitta Jónsdóttir. “I met with the leaders of all parties and asked their opinion on who should lead those talks. After that I summoned Birgitta Jónsdóttir and handed her the mandate,” he said...

"they failed to find common ground on issues including relations with the EU, institutional reform and fishing. The president then called on the Left-Green Movement, the second-biggest party, to form a government. Despite holding talks to build a five-party coalition from the centre-right to the far-left, disagreements over taxes and other issues led the negotiations to collapse in late November. The president then allowed the parties to hold informal talks, which led the Independence party and the Left-Green Movement to discuss terms for sharing power. But the diametrically opposed parties could not find enough common ground.Giving the Pirate party, which came third in the election, the chance to build a government has been seen as a bold move that is not guaranteed to be a success.

“I am optimistic that we will find a way to work together,” Jónsdóttir said."

"Geologists say they are close to creating the hottest borehole in the world.

They are drilling into the heart of a volcano in the south-west of Iceland.

They have told the BBC that they should reach 5km down, where temperatures are expected to exceed 500C (932F), in the next couple of weeks.

The researchers want to bring steam from the deep well back up to the surface to provide an important source of energy.

"We hope that this will open new doors for the geothermal industry globally to step into an era of more production," said Asgeir Margeirsson, CEO of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP), a collaboration between scientists, industry and the Icelandic government.

"That’s the aim - that’s the hope. We have never been this deep before, we have never been into rock this hot before, but we are optimistic."

The project is located on the Reykjanes peninsula, where a volcano last erupted 700 years ago.

A huge rig stands out against the black lava fields; inside a drill has been operating for 24 hours a day since August.

It has now descended nearly 4,500m, and the team expects it to hit its target depth of 5km by the end of the year.

He shows me thin cores of black basalt rock that have been collected from deep beneath the ground.

"It’s getting hotter - and that's what we want," he said.

"We don’t expect to drill into magma, but we are drilling into hot rock. And by hot rock, we mean 400 to 500C."

Close to the rig, sulphurous steam is blasting from the ground, blending into the grey sky above.

Iceland, sitting on the boundary between two major tectonic plates, is one of the most volcanically active places in the world.

Harnessing this energy through geothermal technology is already well established here.

"In this area at Reykjanes, we typically drill to 2km or 3km depth to harness the steam, to run power plants and produce clean, renewable electricity," explained Asgeir Margeirsson.

"We want to see if the resources go deeper than that."

When the drill gets to 5km, the team expects to find molten rock mixed with water. But with the extreme heat and immense pressure found at this depth, the water becomes what is known as "supercritical steam".

It is neither a liquid nor a gas, but it holds far more energy than either. And it is this supercritical steam that the team wants to bring back up to the surface to convert into electricity.

They believe its special properties mean it could produce up to 10 times as much energy as the steam from conventional geothermal wells.

Mr Margeirsson said: "If this works, in the future we would need to drill fewer wells to produce the same amount of energy, meaning we would touch less surface, which means less environmental impact and hopefully lower costs.

"But that is if this works. This is full-scale research and development - we don’t know what the outcome will be."

And there is a good reason to be cautious. With volcanoes, expect the unexpected.

In 2009, the IDDP team attempted to drill deep down into another volcanic site. But at 2,100m, they accidentally hit a shallow reservoir of magma.

Footage on the internet shows black smoke billowing from the well - and the drill was destroyed. So is it really a good idea to tamper with these complex and destructive forces of nature?

Simon Redfern, professor of mineral physics at the University of Dogs, told the BBC: "I think the risks are rather minor. The likelihood is that there will be natural eruptions before any that are generated by human activity.""

"The Stonehenge tunnel scheme has suffered a setback after three influential heritage organisations closely involved in the ancient site and the surrounding landscape raised concerns over a crucial aspect of the government’s preferred route...."

"In their first response to the tunnel scheme, the three bodies said on Wednesday: “The government’s current proposals for the tunnel’s western portal are a cause for concern and need significant improvement..."

"One country hit very hard by the economic crisis a decade ago is rebounding in a big way -- and entrepreneurs should take notice...

"Iceland was completely wrapped up in the financial crisis a decade ago. According to The Economist, relative to its size, the systemic collapse of the Icelandic banking system was the largest by any county in economic history. The impact was felt across the globe, and after the dust settled, Iceland went through a significant economic depression and political upheaval.

The country has recovered nicely, however, and has experienced considerable growth over the past few years. Gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the economic growth, reached an impressive 3.6 percent in 2017, which is only disappointing when you consider that is down from 7.5 percent in 2016."

"In its report, the NAO ruled that the "unprecedented" £850bn of support for the banks was "justified" to head off the potential damage of one or more of them going bust, and preserving people's savings and confidence in the financial system."

"Consultants tell us that if the worst did happen, as many as 400 properties could be affected.

To what extent, we don't know totally but also the road directly above would also go.

That's been a major consideration and that's why we're very pleased that our colleagues at the county council have contributed to the fund.

I remember when I got on the council in 2007, this was being talked about then. It was identified that there is the potential for some cliff slips behind the spa.

The most worrying is a very deep seated one about 30 metres down and that's why we're going to have some deep sheet piling installed and there'll also be soil nailing to protect some of the more minor slippages as well."

"I wonder how many customers would walk away from the agreements, regardless of the legality of doing so, if the TorP price turns out to be higher than the market price when production starts?

LKH on the flybridge"

The hunt for Captain PugWash...

"That's true enough but they knew that they wanted some sort of government guarantee the first time they "commenced" stage 2 talks with the banks. Nevertheless they began talks ... and then clearly stopped them.

It may be that the first lot of talks merely involved Thomas saying "We want stage 2 debt from you wunch of bankers" and the bankers saying "Why dontchoo find out how much the government will either provide or guarantee first and THEN we'll talk turkey".

""Questor is a "nom de plume" for anyone who writes for the share tip column of the Torygraph surely?"

The editor of the Questor column is John Ficenec, who has a beard. He's the one to blame when the column has one of its regular brainfarts, just as Jonathan Guthrie is the editor of Lex in the FT, a column of infinitely greater quality than Questor.

Guthrie does not have a beard.

LKH on the flybridge"

""they will probably spend more money on paper-clips"

Nevertheless it is instructive that RIO has chosen to save that small amount of money and SXX has chosen to spend it.

Perhaps it says more about the FT's business model, given how few square inches are taken up nowadays by both main market and AIM shares on a paying basis.

Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

LKH on the flybridge is Scottish"

"It's interesting because Rio Tinto, a far larger company, has chosen, in recent days, to save a bob or two by DElisting its own quote on the FT share service page.

I don't know how much the FT charges for this service ... probably not a vast amount ... but if it's worth RIO stopping the service it's surprising that Fraseo feels that it's money well spent to pay to show SXX's share price in the FT. I do hope it doesn't augur a freespending approach when it comes to building the mine and the tunnel and what all else.

My other two big miners, BLT and ANTO, chose to stop paying the FT to list their share prices a long time ago. They clearly appreciate that, in these straitened circumstances, one must cut one's coat according to one's cloth..."

"Britain stands at a turning point in our proud history. The vote to leave the European Union has given us a chance to rethink who we are as a nation — and what we must do to succeed.

Key to that, as the prime minister has set out, is to make sure that jobs and opportunities are spread right across the country, and that we invest in the skills, industries and infrastructure of the future.

That is particularly important to me as mayor of the Tees Valley. Our region already makes a major contribution to the UK economy and boasts world-class expertise in chemicals, energy and advanced manufacturing. I am also heading the UK’s leading regeneration opportunity, redeveloping the site of the former SSI steelworks at Redcar to bring more of the high-skilled, high-paying jobs that the government wants to see to our area.

Politicians cannot do that alone. Reshaping our economy and building a Britain fit for the future requires ideas, investment and innovation from the private sector. Where businesses come forward with those ideas, a strategic state should be ready to back them. That’s what the government’s industrial strategy is all about.

In Tees Valley the government has an opportunity to put that strategy into action by supporting one of the UK’s most exciting businesses in the form of Sirius Minerals. The FTSE 250 company is building a mine in North Yorkshire to extract a fertilizer known as polyhalite, which will then be transported via a 23-mile underground tunnel to be exported from Teesside.

This £3.2 billion project is the largest private sector investment in the north of England. And a report by the independent economists Quod published yesterday sets out the massive benefits it will bring to our region and the whole of the UK after Brexit.

The report says that Sirius will create more than 1,000 long-term, high-skilled, highly productive jobs; add £2.3 billion to GDP every year for more than 50 years; reduce the UK’s trade deficit by 7 per cent with annual exports of £2.5 billion; and make annual tax contributions worth £472 million a year that will help to pay for public services.

It will also help the regeneration of the SSI site by attracting new investment into the area and driving the creation of a new industrial cluster.

Put simply, fertilizer from North Yorkshire, exported from Teesside, will help to feed people all around the world and deliver a massive boost to our local and national economy. It is a truly transformational project that will deliver export-led success for the UK after Brexit and should be a poster child for the government’s industrial strategy.

To help deliver these significant benefits, Sirius is in discussions with the Infrastructure Projects Authority about a potential Treasury guarantee to form part of the financing. I am working closely with both the company and the Treasury to secure this and hope ministers will give it their full support.

As the Quod report puts it: “The project is an exemplary project for addressing the UK’s ambitions and challenges as we leave the European Union.”

Opportunities like this are rare. If we truly believe what we say in the industrial strategy, the government should be backing it to the hilt.